Right to criticize

Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Jeffrey ruled March 30 that Bill Whatcott has a right to criticize homosexuality. Whatcott was arrested by campus security at the University of Calgary in 2008 for distributing a pamphlet called “Truth about homosexuality.” The university then indefinitely banned him from the campus. In November 2011 provincial court Judge John D. Bascom ruled that the university had infringed Whatcott’s right to freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The university appealed that decision, arguing that the Charter only applies to government actions but not to the university since it is a private entity. The March 30 ruling dismissed that appeal. In 2010 Whatcott won a similar case when Justice Darla Hunter of Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal overturned a 2006 Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal ruling; the tribunal had fined Whatcott $17,500 for distributing similar pamphlets in that province and imposed a “lifetime” ban on his freedom to publicly criticize homosexuality.